The Tale of Discord and Pacer

CHAPTER 3: Discoveries and Returns –

When Starlight opened her eyes, she found herself within a large library full of flying books and odd looking animals.

“What is this place?” Starlight inquires the Draconequus.

Discord smiles, “My library of course. I may live in a small house in the fourth dimension alone doing chaos, but that doesn’t mean I don’t read!”

“That’s true,” Starlight realized. “So what do each book have in them?”

Discord looks around replying, “Oh, not much. Just a few enchantment books, diaries and journals, maybe a few time-travel scrolls-”

“What?!?” Starlight interrupts. “Why do you have time travel scrolls?” Starlight examines the scrolls. “And they’re the same kind that I got from the Star-Swirl section of Canterlot!”

Discord hovers over and looks saying, “Woah. Haven’t seen these in a while! I guess I need a filing cabinet like Pinkie sometime soon.”

The two giggle and Starlight moves a ways to find a journal labeled, “STARSWIRL THE BEARDED HISTORY.”

“Star-Swirl? You seem to have a lot of items from olden times around here,” Starlight says, confused.

Discord rummages through a crate and answers, “Well I have been around for a while and have been a big collector of rare and dangerous spells and books……Not that I’d use them for evil, mind you.”

“So what was it like to be a demon of chaos and disharmony without any friends or cares in the world?” Starlight asks, honestly. “Is it something you miss? Is it something that would happen again?”

Discord gets up and replies, “Not a day goes by when I wish I hadn’t taken friendship AND magic for granted.”

Starlight nods and then says, “I on the other hand am glad to have Twilight, Spike and the others as friends. I was too mad with power and too scared to lose something that I just couldn’t control myself without their help. You know that feeling?”

“Yes. All the time,” Discord lowers his head.

“Well for what it’s worth, from what I can tell at least,” Starlight smiles, “You’re not as bad a guy as you look.” She holds out her hoof to his lion paw and the two smile.

“So how long have you known about these powers of yours? Or at least had them, I should say,” Starlight inquires.

“For as long as Celestia’s been riding the air-waves! Before that is for some reason a blur at the moment. Any ideas on why?” Discord inquires back.

But it is all stopped by a letter popping up into Discord’s hand. It was one of Spike’s letters!

“Hold that thought.”

Discord reads the letter in Spike’s handwriting. “The princesses at Canterlot are asking for all of Twilight’s friends, including you and Starlight, to come at once. Can you make it here ASAP?”

Discord writes back, “We’ll be there in a few.”

Blows multicolored fire out of his mouth and into the letter sending it back to Spike.

“First of all, what was that fire you just blew?” Starlight asks confused.

“That was Rainbow Fire,” Discord replies. “Strongest kind, even above the blue kind. Only reptiles of great magic can blow it. I just usually do it alone.”

“Hmm. So what was the letter saying?” Starlight asks next.

“We’re needed in Canterlot with Twilight and the others. I’ll take us there. We’ll have to continue 20 questions later. Hold on tight!” Discord takes Starlight’s hoof and they poof away!

__________

A few seconds later, Discord and Starlight were outside the Princess’ throne room. Shining Armor and Flash Sentry were standing guard.

Shining Armor steps forward stating, “The princesses are waiting for you inside.” Discord nods, but then Shining Armor whispers, “I’m watching you.”

Discord goes in past the door Flash Sentry opened with Starlight close behind.

“Hi everypony,” Starlight waves. Then she gasps as she sees the infamous Princess Celestia look before her right in front of Discord.

“Welcome you two. And it’s a pleasure to meet Twilight’s new friend and protégée,” Celestia smiles.

Starlight was welcomed to go sit by the others who waved to her.

Rarity looks at Discord’s head and says, “You could have at least come with a cleaner appearance at the throne room.”

Starlight points out, “We were just recently looking through his library outside his home.”

Twilight jumps smiling, “You have a LIBRARY?!?”

Discord nods but then focuses on Celestia, Luna and Cadence. “Plus, Spike told us to come right over ASAP. So what happened?”

Everypony turns to Luna, who had told her sister to call everypony there. She replies, “A section of the Dreamscape HAS BEEN SHATTERED……”

Everypony in the room gasps at the mention of this.

“Was it Tantabus?” Fluttershy whimpers.

“I thought we took care of that thing months ago!” Applejack adds.

“It’s not that,” Luna replies.

“Then what was it?” Discord finally asks.

“That’s why we called you here,” Celestia answers.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Rainbow Dash interjects, “You called DISCORD for dream advice???”

“I know it’s strange, but, we just need him this time for answering something that even we have never heard before!” Cadence explains.

The seven ponies and dragon shrug and nod to Discord to look into the dream situation. He steps forward and asks, “Whose dream was attacked?”

Celestia holds up a photo of two orange and teal foals.

“Snips and Snails?” Spike inquires confused.

Celestia nods and Discord thinks, holding his hand to his mouth. Then, while removing his hand, his removed mouth gets a lightbulb as he says, “That’s it!” Discord looks at the lightbulb next to him and flicks it away.

Discord rubs his hands together and shuffles the photos around and then explains, “We’re about to travel to a vision of the dream and see what’s causing all of this. That means, everyone hold on tight!”

Lightning strikes and Fluttershy holds on to a reluctant Rainbow Dash. When everypony open their eyes, they’re in a vision of Snips and Snails’ bedroom (similar to the vision ability of the white potion Zecora had).

“Almost there,” Discord replies as he activates his magic once again; but this time, they find themselves in a candy corn farm!

Twilight looks around, confirming, “If I know Snips and Snails, this must be their dream…”

“And that must be them out there plowing with mollusks!” Applejack points out to.

Pinkie shouts, “Wonder why they’re-”

“Quiet Pinkie. We’re just here to observe,” Cadence warns.

For a minute or two, nothing odd happened. But then, Luna looks up to see that familiar green glow in the sky from other nights before. And then, without warning……It struck the land like LIGHTNING!

This lightning shook the entire farmland and was ended by not only a tornado of dark magic, but a shockwave of it too!

“DUCK!” Snips yells.

Pinkie looks around, but is pulled down just in time by Starlight!

When everypony gets up, they see Snips and Snails walk over to the lightning crater. The two foals look around and finally see, in the middle, a large elk with wings get up……its eyes open and it glares right at the two! They run for it a ways, but are stopped by the elk soaring and uses its wings to sliced the entire farmland/dreamscape into nothingness, cornering them!

The elk sniffs around and finally, after taking a deep breath, it looks down and puts on his hat on saying, “Where am I right now?”

Snails replies, “Oh, our dream farm of wonderful dream foods!” Snips nods in agreement.

“Uh-huh, uh-huh. I see. But if I BIT YOUR HEAD OFF, would you DIE?” The elk inquires.

This question may have shocked everypony, including the princesses, but Snips replies, “Uh, Yeah! How can you not-”

The elk covers the little pony’s mouth and smiles, “The Equestria Realm……It worked……I’M BACK……” Then the elk stands up in a victorious pose and screams, “BRIM HAS RETURNED!!!”

The princesses and ponies look at each other and shrug. Snips and Snails say exactly what’s on the mind of Twilight and the others: “Who are you exactly?”

Brim turns around and smiles, “Brim. Brimstone Abalone. The Supreme Warlord of the Horizon Empire!”

After a few seconds of silence, “The what?”

Brim thinks and then replies, “Oh! You might know me as the Master of Mischief!”

The two shrug.

“The Being of Confusion?”

The two shrug.

“How about the Perryton of Pain?”

Snails steps forward asking, “Is a Perryton related to a parakeet?”

Snips adds innocently, “Or a parachute?”

Brim smacks his face and replies, grumpily, “Ok, I’ll put it like this: I used to be partners with Star Swirl the Bearded. OK?”

The two foals along with Twilight and her friends finally understand, replying things like, “Oh! Star Swirl the Bearded!” or “That guy I know!” or “That pony is a legend around here!” or-

Brim roars, “SILENCE!” so loud, the rest of the farmland/dreamscape shattered to rubble and shards! Then he growls, “I’m not in the mood for this nonsense. COME MY BRETHEREN!” And with that, Brim summons rainbow orbs and slams them down, summoning zombie-like creatures!

“Go forth and not only find the students of Star Swirl, but especially PACER HOOVES! Bring him to me alive. I need his heart pumping……For now,” Brimstone commands. And with that, the monsters he summoned leapt out of this dreamscape and into other dreams!

Then Brimstone walks over to Discord smiling, “When this is over, not a single creature with remember YOU or Star Swirl even EXISTED!” Brim grabs Discord by the neck and laughs, “Look out, old friend! BRIM’S COMING FOR YOU!”

The dream immediately comes to an end. The ponies look at each other with a panic and the Princesses/Twilight stop everyone with their freeze magic.

“I don’t know what was happening or why, but we need a plan!” Twilight confirms. “Discord, any thoughts?”

Discord replies after a silence, “I have to get ready! You heard him……He’s coming back……”